…new hair.

New city, new hair. The last time my hair was short was in my freshman year of college…yikes. I’ve been growing it ever since and never thought I would cut it off again. Pre-cut it was falling around my waist. Yeah, THAT long. Let me start by saying that this was not an un-premeditated decision. I have been debating chopping my hair off for months – since sometime last summer actually.

The thing is – my hair is thick. I’m not talking a little extra fullness that gives your hair that nice body look. I’m talking that thick-oh-my-god-is-this-a-horses-tail-how-can-you-possibly-have-this-much-hair-you-could-shave-half-of-it-off-and-still-have-a-nice-head-of-hair-thick. Some people tell me I have nice texture and I would agree. It’s a strange kind of texture – the kind that curls a lot in the back and sort of in the front when I force it. But the nice thing about it is that it does whatever I want it to. If I straighten it you wouldn’t even know it gets curly. If I curl it it actually holds. You’re probably saying to yourself, “well that’s nice, Alyssa. You have perfect hair. Congratulations”. Let me stop you there…

The OTHER thing is that because of the thickness it takes waaaaaaaay to much time to actually make any of these things happen. Sure, if I put the effort in I can make it do what I want. But is the effort worth it when I need to spend an hour on my hair alone? Let’s put that into perspective: that means instead of waking up at 6:30 I have to wake up at 5:30. #enoughsaid

So after much back and forth I decided it was time. If you also decide that it’s time I would highly recommend finding a well-reviewed, reputable hair salon for any significant changes with your hair cut. Yes, hair grows back and any bad cut can usually be remedied by a hair stylist if necessary. But do you really want to go through that? This cut was going to be emotional enough as it was and I was not prepared to walk out of a salon with a bag over my head. I did some serious searching on Google since I didn’t have anyone around to make a recommendation (keep in mind this is when I first moved to LA). I landed on a salon that wasn’t over-priced and had some pretty good reviews for their hair services.

Cut to the hair salon.

I was terrified. My hair was my security blanket. I knew how to style it, what I would look like every day, and it made me feel feminine. Sitting there I thought, “am I really doing this? But wait, like…really doing this?” Yeah, I was really doing this. I showed her a picture and pointed to a spot on my collarbone where I wanted it to fall. She whipped out her scissors and *SNIP*. “Oh. My. God. I’m really doing this”.

I got a blunt cut with some angles in the front to frame my face. I panicked at first. There was a lot of hair on the floor and when I reached back to run my fingers through my hair there wasn’t much there. She had done a good job, I just didn’t realize it at first. I immediately went home to show Mike the ‘horrible mistake’ that I had made. He told me I looked different but beautiful. I didn’t feel very beautiful. I tried to style it that night and I didn’t know what to do. How do you curl hair that’s only 4 inches long at the shortest part using a 1.5″ curling iron? I’m not going to lie, I cried when we got home after going out that night.

I think it took me about 2 weeks to feel like myself again. I just wasn’t used to the way I looked and any drastic change like that seems much more significant in the immediate moments after you do it. But then I realized that my hair wasn’t actually that short at all, and I figured out how to curl it. 5 weeks later I am definitely liking the cut a lot more. It’s a nice change and has cut down my morning routine significantly. And I’ve started to believe Mike again when he tells me I look beautiful.

Are you thinking about making a significant change in your hairstyle? Tell me about it below!